Martha Graham Center Wins Another Round in Legal Fight

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Published: June 29, 2005

A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance owns the rights to seven of Graham's unpublished works. The decision brings a long legal battle with her heir, Ron Protas, close to an end.

The judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of United States District Court, ruled two years ago that the center, not Mr. Projas, controlled the rights to the majority of 70 dances that were at issue.

Mr. Protas appealed the ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which mostly supported Judge Cedarbaum but sent a handful of the works back to her for clarification.

In her decision, issued Thursday, the judge said a ''preponderance of the credible evidence'' showed that the center held the rights to ''Embattled Garden,'' ''Episodes: Part I,'' ''Phaedra,'' ''Secular Games,'' ''Legend of Judith,'' ''The Witch of Endor'' and ''Part Real-Part Dream.'' The dances date from 1956 to 1965 and are among the most important in the Graham catalog.

Judge Cedarbaum ruled that another dance, ''Tanagra,'' belonged in the public domain and that yet another, ''Duets,'' did not exist separately but was merely an excerpt from ''Frescoes.'' The issue arose because a duet from the ''Frescoes'' was included in a televised Kennedy Center performance in 1979, which was cited in the lawsuit.

Marvin Preston, the center's executive director, did not immediately respond to messages, nor did a lawyer for Mr. Protas. The center's lawyer, Katherine B. Forrest, said she expected an appeal from Mr. Protas but expressed confidence that it would lose.

''We're closing the book here,'' she said.

The case put performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company in limbo, but they resumed in 2003, and the center recently announced a restructuring that it said would streamline operations.

Photo: Martha Graham's ''Embattled Garden'' at the Joyce Theater in 2003. (Photo by Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)